Former India players defend captain MS Dhoni and attack head coach Duncan
Fletcher, who remain in England but work with Ravi Shastri for the ODIs

Duncan Fletcher’s position as India head coach is in jeopardy after the Board of Control for Cricket in India appointed Ravi Shastri as director of cricket for the one-day series against England – an act which undermines Fletcher’s authority.

Two of Fletcher’s assistants, the bowling coach Joe Dawes, and the fielding coach Trevor Penney, have been given a “break” by the BCCI and replaced for the one-day series by the Indians Bharat Arun and Sanjay Bangar.

Fletcher will stay on in England and work with Shastri but the appointment is a blow to the former England coach’s powerbase. A BCCI release confirmed that Shastri “will be overall in charge of cricket affairs of the Indian team”.

Fletcher is contracted until the end of the World Cup in March but this tour to England could be the final act of an up-and-down period in charge of the Indian side. India won the Champions Trophy in England last year but the coach has overseen a series of disastrous tours, particularly in Test cricket.

This summer's 3-1 defeat by England followed a 4-0 loss here in 2011 and a 2-1 defeat in India by Alastair Cook’s side in 2012. Fletcher also endured a 4-0 whitewash in Australia, lost 1-0 in South Africa and endured the same result in New Zealand this year.

He has long been a soft target for criticism from former India players and they lined up to attack him after the three-day defeat at the Oval.

Previously Fletcher has enjoyed the support of N Srinivasan, the president of the BCCI, but, as he is suspended from his duties with the board, change has become a greater possibility.

There was speculation in India on Tuesday that the imposition of Shastri was intended partly as a device to leave Fletcher with the impression that his position had been diminished to the point it was untenable.

Anurag Thakur, the BCCI joint secretary, signalled the possibility of change on Monday, as well as the desire to bring more Indian coaches. “Obviously, there are questions about the role of support staff after such a performance,” he said. “If you ask me, I would ideally like an Indian support staff to work in tandem with Fletcher, which might help him.”

Bangar and Arun are both former India Test players and Ramakrishnan Sridhar, who joins the tour as fielding coach, has worked at the India academy in Bangalore.

A BCCI statement said: “In their continuing efforts to re-energise the support to the team, the BCCI has given a break to the bowling coach Mr Joe Dawes and the fielding coach, Mr Trevor Penney for the one-day series and appointed Mr Sanjay Bangar, former Indian all-rounder and former India fast bowler Mr Bharat Arun as the assistant coaches of the team. Mr R Sridhar will join the support team as the fielding coach for the one-day series.”

Dawes, an Australian who played for Queensland, has worked with India since 2011-12 while Penney, a Zimbabwean who has worked with England in the past, has been fielding coach since the 2011 World Cup.

In India Fletcher has been the target for more criticism than MS Dhoni, the captain, following the defeat by England. Dilip Vengsarkar, the former captain, was especially scathing. “Unfortunately for Dhoni and India, he had Duncan Fletcher as the coach who, it seems, is devoid of any ideas and has no clue as to how to turn things around.

“He, it seems, hardly motivated the young team. In fact the support staff and the think tank really let down the team very badly. I hope the BCCI sacks them immediately, unless they go once again by what the senior players in the team feel about them.”

However, the former India all-rounder Madan Lal said that simply appointing Shastri was not going to yield results. “You have to sit down and ask the coach what went wrong. Merely sidelining him is not going to help,” he said.

“His [Shastri’s] presence is not going to make any difference. We are the cricket powerhouse, the world is looking at us. We must behave in a more professional way.”

After the one-day series in England, India have a Test series at home to West Indies starting in October.